Tamago (Eggs)

[SobaAddict70]

In conversations by PM and also now that its cold weather, I've been meaning to try making a traditional chawanmushi, which is essentially a Japanese savory egg custard with various ingredients associated with cold weather/autumn, but I don't have a recipe for it or even an idea behind the necessary technique.

I know that traditional chawanmushi calls for a dashi stock, and that it contains shrimp, matsutake mushrooms, gingko and possibly nori. A VERY California new age-y version I had in San Francisco a couple of years ago had kabocha squash, hijiki and carrot-ginger puree.

I was wondering if anyone out there might have a recipe for a traditional version.

Thanks.

SA

Edited January 19, 2003 by SobaAddict70 (log)

[torakris]

Chawanmushi is a wonderful dish and don't forget that in the summer it is great served cold!

The dashi should be in a 3:1 ratio to the beaten eggs

So for 4 people

4 medium eggs

2 1/2 cups dashi (at room temp)

1/2 tsp salt

1 Tbsp mirin

1Tbsp soy sauce

Gently beat the eggs in one bowl and combine the other ingredients in another. Slowly pour the stock into the eggs, mixing well but not beating (there shouldn't be any bubbles on the surface). You can either strain in now or strain it as you are pouring it into the cups, but it must be strained.

Place whatever ingredients you are using into the cup and slowly ladle or strain the egg mixture on top. if garnishing with mitsuba or something else gently place it on top of the mixture.

Traditional ingredients usually include:

chicken

shrimp or crab or kamaboko

dried shiitake

ginkgo nuts

mitsuba

This is a great dish to get creative on, the last time I made it I used wakame and chicken meatballs seasones with yuzu rind.

[SobaAddict70]

remind me what's mitsuba?

thx torakris,

SA

[Jinmyo]

Mitsuba is a kind of parsley/cress. I can hardly ever find it. In Chinese it's san ye quin or san ip.

I do chawanmushi with less dashi to egg, about 2 to 1.

I'll often have a few thick slices of lobster tail at the bottom of the ramikin. Or a few mussels or shrimp.

I've also made it with a quail egg and a few black truffle slices.

[torakris]

I have seen mitsuba called trefoil in the US, but don't think I ever found except very occasionally in a Japanese market.

What to substitute would depend on your taste and what else was in it.

I have seen recipes that call for ratios od 2:1 and 2.5:1, in Japanese restaurants in Japan they tend to be on the soupy side (the way I like them) while in the US I have found them to be firmer.

I haven't made it recently but I used to make a Korean style chawanmushi with one large bowl instead of individual ones and for that I used the lower 2:1 proportions.

Unfortunately my husband doesn't care for chawanmushi so I rarely make it anymore.

In Japanese supermarkets they even sell chawanmushi "sets", these include 4pcs chicken breast, 4 pcs shrimp, 4 slivers shiitake, 4 ginkgo nuts and a small amount of mitsuba.

[Hiroyuki]

I like tamago! They are inexpensive and nutritious. This morning, I made both atsuyaki tamago and iri tamago like I usually do. My recipe is as follows:

First I put a little bit of water in a bowl, add a spoonful (i.e., 5 ml) of instant dashi powder and some soy sauce. Then I add several eggs (seven this morning) and beat them well. (Many Japanese add sugar but I don't.) I use a regular, round frying pan (18 cm in diameter) to make atsuyaki tamago, not a rectangular one specifically for this purpose (I don't have one). I make atsuyaki tamago first and then iri tamago. Simple and yummy.

How do you cook eggs? Do you more often make omelets and scrambled eggs?

[Hiroyuki]

This is an example of how a professional makes atsuyaki tamago.

http://www.kbn.ne.jp/home/tecchan/tecchan-...n/atsuyaki.html

(Japanese only)

Edited November 3, 2004 by Hiroyuki (log)

[helenjp]

Beautiful looking dashimaki tamago in the link, Hiroyuki!

I used to strain my eggs to avoid white flecks, but I find they sometimes don't set well if strained through too fine a sieve.

Do you ever put any filling in your atsumaki tamago?

My kids like u-maki with eel (and it's a very economical way to enjoy eel!). Yesterday son2 had a school outing, so he had a cheese and scallion "filling" in his atsumaki tamago.

Tarako filling is nice too, but prohibitively expensive for family eating.

[Hiroyuki]

Do you ever put any filling in your atsumaki tamago?

←

Unfortunately, No. If I did, my children would not eat it.

[Hiroyuki]

Some basic facts about eggs in Japan:

1. Japan's annual egg consumption is the highest in the world – 340 eggs per person.

2. In Japan, eggs are often referred to as "bukka no yuutousei" (literally, honor student in price), which refers to the fact that the price of eggs has changed only slightly for decades. In 1955, for example, an egg cost 12 yen while tofu cost 14 yen per pack and rice 850 yen per 10 kg.

3. Some people may be worried about the cholesterol in eggs. With the Japanese-style diet involving rice, miso soup, oshinko (pickles), fish, and natto, however, 1 to 3 eggs a day have a positive impact.

from here:

http://www2.ocn.ne.jp/~who/syoku/tamago.html

(Japanese only)

[torakris]

2.  In Japan, eggs are often referred to as "bukka no yuutousei" (literally, honor student in price), which refers to the fact that the price of eggs has changed only slightly for decades.  In 1955, for example, an egg cost 12 yen while tofu cost 14 yen per pack and rice 850 yen per 10 kg.

←

and to give people an idea of the prices today

eggs about 10~20 yen for 1

tofu 80~200 yen per pack

rice average about 4,000~5,000yen per 10kg

[torakris]

my kid's favorite is the dashi-maki (atsu-yaki) tamago, I add dashi, soy , sugar and salt and do it in a round frypan like Hiroyuki.

I add nothing as I prefer the plain taste of eggs for this.

I make some type of omelet for my husband's bento almost every morning, favorites of my husband and kids are hijiki omelet, a sheet of nori in the middle, or with scallions and sesame oil.

[Hiroyuki]

Kinshi tamago.

I almost always make kinshi tamago when making 'gomoku zushi' and 'hiyashi chuuka'. My wife often makes iri tamago instead just because it's easier to make.

Those of you who don't know what kinshi tamago, visit the site:

http://www.coara.or.jp/~mieko/20020307sushi/0307sushi.htm

Again, I never add sugar to my kinshi tamago. Probably I am one of those few Japanese who hate sweetened tamago dishes. Fortunately, my wife and children don't like them, either.

[torakris]

Again, I never add sugar to my kinshi tamago.  Probably I am one of those few Japanese who hate sweetened tamago dishes.  Fortunately, my wife and children don't like them, either.

←

My husband hates sweetened eggs too!

but I love them so that is what I make.

I make (sweetened) kinshi tamago mostly for cold noodle dishes like hiyashi chukka or Korean style cold noodles.

[torakris]

have you ever made or eaten onsen tamago?

onsen is the Japanese word for hot springs and these are soft boiled eggs that are cooked in the hot springs, thus they are also a very popular menu item at hot spring resorts.

You can also find them already prepared in the refrigerated section of supermarkets:

http://www.isedelica.co.jp/product/img/onsennew.jpg

Though it isn't exactly the same (not hot springs) you can make them at home, English recipe and picture:

http://www.bob-an.com/recipe/dailyjc/ref/onsen/onsen.html

I have never tried to make this at home, but I might give it a try....

[MomOfLittleFoodies]

I'm not fond of sweetened eggs either, although I do like to drizzle sweetened shoyu over plain scrambled eggs on a hot bowl of rice.

[edsel]

2.  In Japan, eggs are often referred to as "bukka no yuutousei" (literally, honor student in price), which refers to the fact that the price of eggs has changed only slightly for decades.  In 1955, for example, an egg cost 12 yen while tofu cost 14 yen per pack and rice 850 yen per 10 kg.

←

and to give people an idea of the prices today

eggs about 10~20 yen for 1

tofu 80~200 yen per pack

rice average about 4,000~5,000yen per 10kg

←

Is there some sort of price control in effect here? If I do the math correctly, an egg costs US$ 0.17 (max) by Kristin's account. (€ 0,16). Why have eggs risen so little relative to other staples?

As a North American, when I hear the word "tamago" I instantly think of the flat omelets served over sushi rice. Are eggs commonly eaten poached/fried/etc. in Japan?

[helenjp]

Hmm..maybe one reason for the stability of egg prices is the increased demand for both chicken and eggs compared to the first half of the 20th century...

Bird flu and food poisoning scares have driven prices up - I can't find eggs at 10 yen each any more around here...premium free range or other designer eggs are more than 3 times that price.

Fried eggs ("eyeball-fried" in Japanese) are common, but not especially traditional. Poached are all but unknown, and boiled eggs are either hard boiled, and can be bought at convenience foods, while soft-boiled eggs "onsen tamago" - hot springs style are served with the whites barely coagulated, broken into a bowl with soy sauce (and maybe dashi?? so long since I've eaten them).

Probably "iri-tamago" is the most common - usually translated as "scrambled eggs", but actually an omelet which is given a few stirs as it cooks.

The great egg mystique which focuses on omelets in western cooking seems to concentrate on the atsu-yaki or dashi-maki styles that Hiroyuki introduced at the beginning of the thread.

If you add more sugar and salt/soy sauce and perhaps less dashi than for dashi-maki and stir with several chopsticks until the egg forms large granules as it fries, you get "tamago soboro", used as a topping for bento rice and donburi dishes. A very handy item, as long as you don't overcook it.

[edsel]

Thanks for your elucidation, Helen. The "onsen tamago" sounds especially intriguing. Is this style of egg cookery considered "old fashioned" in Japan? You say it's been a long time since you've eaten eggs in that style. I find the notion of barely-coagulated egg-whites rather appealing. It strikes me as somewhat "modern", though in Japan that may not be the case.

[torakris]

Bird flu and food poisoning scares have driven prices up - I can't find eggs at 10 yen each any more around here...premium free range or other designer eggs are more than 3 times that price.

←

really?

I can buy them daily in my area at 98 yen for 10 (S and M mix) at the drug stores, at at least one supermarket will be offering the L sizes for a similar price every week.

During the height of the bird flu Costco's LL sized eggs were 20 for 185 yen, a month ago they were at 358 yen.

[helenjp]

Yeah, the 100 yen eggs seem to have vanished. Big supermarkets like Daiei and Saty don't even have them under 200 yen some weeks...

One reason is that there are not a whole lot of hi-rise apartments around here. Time for me to get my knapsack out and go out for a raid on the cheaper markets along the Sobu Line!

Edsel, nothing against onsen tamago except time required...and I wouldn't want to make them with cheap eggs.

Egg cookery wasn't common during the Edo period, when fish was the only animal protein officially recognized. I'm not sure when onsen tamago dates from.

I looked up the method -- 30-40 minutes in water 65 deg. Celsius (150 deg. F). Either eat hot with salt or shoyu, or chill and pour shoyu over.

[Hiroyuki]

Why have eggs risen so little relative to other staples?

←

In a word, because of the modern chicken farming that has increased the production of eggs.

From here:

http://www2.ocn.ne.jp/~who/syoku/tamago.html

(Japanese only)

[Sobaicecream]

Some basic facts about eggs in Japan:

1.  Japan's annual egg consumption is the highest in the world – 340 eggs per person.

2.  In Japan, eggs are often referred to as "bukka no yuutousei" (literally, honor student in price), which refers to the fact that the price of eggs has changed only slightly for decades.  In 1955, for example, an egg cost 12 yen while tofu cost 14 yen per pack and rice 850 yen per 10 kg.

3.  Some people may be worried about the cholesterol in eggs.  With the Japanese-style diet involving rice, miso soup, oshinko (pickles), fish, and natto, however, 1 to 3 eggs a day have a positive impact.

from here:

http://www2.ocn.ne.jp/~who/syoku/tamago.html

(Japanese only)

←

Thanks for all the great info on eggs. I must admit, I've lived in a bunch of different places but I've never eaten eggs so frequently as I do now, living in Japan. I remember one of my first nights in Japan, at my homestay family's home, each of us was served an enormous omu-rice, and each omelet must have required at least 3 or 4 eggs to make. I was rather astounded--and concerned about my cholesterol level, since eggs made an almost daily appearance at the dinner table. I guess I shouldn't be surprised to discover that Japan is the number-one consumer of eggs, but I am!

Unfortunately, I haven't seen 100-yen packs of eggs in a long time either.

[MomOfLittleFoodies]

If you add more sugar and salt/soy sauce and perhaps less dashi than for dashi-maki and stir with several chopsticks until the egg forms large granules as it fries, you get "tamago soboro", used as a topping for bento rice and donburi dishes. A very handy item, as long as you don't overcook it.

←

I've done this before. Before my eldest was diagnosed with egg and soy allergies, I used to make san shoku donburi. Rice with tamago soboro, niku soboro and green peas.

[torakris]

If you add more sugar and salt/soy sauce and perhaps less dashi than for dashi-maki and stir with several chopsticks until the egg forms large granules as it fries, you get "tamago soboro", used as a topping for bento rice and donburi dishes. A very handy item, as long as you don't overcook it.

←

I've done this before. Before my eldest was diagnosed with egg and soy allergies, I used to make san shoku donburi. Rice with tamago soboro, niku soboro and green peas.

←

san shoku donburi, the bento favorite of lazy mothers/wives!

my husband has been eating more and more of these:

http://www.yokohama.vu/zzz/bq_food/07sanshoku/3shoku1.jpg

not mine by the way....

but not much different.